These 2 friends won't be parting ways

Friends through high school in New Lenox and college, Stephen Pavnica and and Mike Molchin are now working together

It's too soon to say if recent college graduates Stephen Pavnica and Michael Molchin will become lifelong friends.

But the duo is on their way.

Pavnica (left) and Molchin met and became friends at Lincoln-Way Central High School in New Lenox where they participated in swim team and water polo team together.

By coincidence, they ended up at Joliet Junior College together in the pre-engineering program.

Somewhat by design, they both earned engineering degrees at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, where they graduated on May 12.

Last week, they two of them flew out to Sparks, Nevada. Both have jobs as quality technicians at Tesla Gigafactory and, yes, they are sharing an apartment.

How did this friendship developed? Pavnica said he initiated it.

"One day, I just asked him to hang out," Pavnica said. "We'd been at the gym and when he was getting into his car, I asked him if he wanted to get some pizza and hang out."

Molchin said Pavnica was "very easy to talk to" and the two "just clicked."

Both boys decided they wanted to study mechanical engineering. Pavnica said a high school aptitude test suggested mechanical engineering as the best career fit for him.
Molchin said he "had no idea" what he wanted to study but was considering aviation.

However, Pavnica talked very positively about engineering.

"So I said, 'OK, I'll become an engineer," Molchin said.

But separation was on the horizon as high school graduation approached.

"I had planned to go to JJC," Pavnica said. "And Molchin was all set up to go to Northern. A week before we started class, he's like, 'Yeah, I don't want to go to Northern. I'm coming to JJC.' And so he followed me to JJC."

Molchin said he planned to study mechanical engineering at Northern Illinois University but then felt it wasn't the right move for him. So he attended JJC for one year, took many of his classes with Pavnica and moved to SIU the following year.

But first the two friends discovered they couldn't do the math, Pavnica said.

"We couldn't do math at the level they wanted," Molchin clarified.

Pavnica said he understands calculus just fine and Molchin said he "can do statistics all day long." Molchin also discovered he didn't enjoy design work At SIU, Molchin learned he could study industrial management and applied engineering, which he felt was a better fit.

And Molchin communicated that information to Pavnica, who finished his core classes at JJC and then joined Molchin at SIU.

Eventually graduation neared. This time, it seemed the friends would definitely go their separate ways. Molchin landed a job at Tesla. Pavnica had none.

"I had 300 applications all over the place," Pavnica said. "I was worried I would graduate without a job."

But Molchin said Tesla wanted had other quality technician positions to fill, so he sent Pavnica's resume and information to his contact person. And the rest is history.

While neither one has a crystal ball to see their future, Pavnica did say, "I'm pretty sure I'm stuck with Molchin a little while longer," Pavnica

Although Molchin will joke that Pavnica was once the "weird kid that followed me around," he now says, "I just hope Steve falls in love with the west as much as I did. And hopefully he won't want to leave."